javamaze

What is causing missing characters and incorrect starting location when creating a maze from a text file?


I'm converting a text file into a two dimensional char array and getting indexes of specific chars.

I have this task where I need to read the map which is text file, and find the shortest route out. So far I converted the text file into a char array, but if I'm printing out the map on console, some of the chars are missing. For some reason I don't understand, I'm not getting correct location for the starting point.

My idea to use same logic I found about binary maze. If you read this and think I'm doing something completely stupid, then please let me know.

First, I created two methods to get how many rows and columns there are in the map:

private static int getRowsOfTheMap() throws IOException {
    int rows = 0;
    BufferedReader reader = getReader(filePath);
    while (reader.readLine() != null) rows++;
    reader.close();
    return rows;
}

private static int getColumnsOfTheMap() throws IOException {
    BufferedReader reader = getReader(filePath);
    String firstRow = reader.readLine();

    return firstRow.length();
}

Then, I created a method to get the map as 2D char array:

private static char[][] getMapFromFile() throws IOException {

    char[][] map = new char[getRowsOfTheMap()][getColumnsOfTheMap()];

    BufferedReader reader = getReader(filePath);

    for (int i = 0; i < map.length; i++) {
        for (int j = 0; j < map[0].length; j++) {
            map[i][j] = (char) reader.read();
        }
    }
    return map;
}

And method for getting starting point:

private static int[] getStartingPoint(char[][] map) {
    int[] startingPoint = {
        -1,
        -1
    };
    for (int i = 0; i < map.length; i++) {
        for (int j = 0; j < map[i].length; j++) {
            if (map[i][j] == 'X') {
                startingPoint[0] = i;
                startingPoint[1] = j;
            }
        }
    }
    return startingPoint;
}

Map from the text file and map output.

The map from the text file: Map after I converted it into char array

And with location expected is [1,2] actual is [1,3]


Solution

  • I was able to produce the correct map, and [1, 2] as a starting-point with the following code; adapted from yours.

    I created a Maze class, with a map method to populate the map, rows, and columns fields.
    Additionally, I created a startingPoint method to return an int[] of the starting point row and column indices.
    Finally, I created an overridden toString method for printing the maze.

    You can utilize Arrays.binarySearch to find X.

    class Maze {
        File file;
        char[][] map;
        int rows, columns;
    
        Maze(String path) throws IOException {
            file = new File(path);
            map();
        }
    
        void map() throws IOException {
            StringBuilder string = new StringBuilder();
            String line;
            try (BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(file))) {
                String newline = System.lineSeparator();
                rows = 0;
                while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
                    if (rows++ != 0) string.append(newline);
                    string.append(line);
                    columns = line.length();
                }
            }
            BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new StringReader(string.toString()));
            map = new char[rows][columns];
            int index = 0;
            while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null)
                map[index++] = line.toCharArray();
        }
    
        int[] startPoint() {
            int index = 0;
            int column;
            for (char[] row : map) {
                if ((column = Arrays.binarySearch(row, 'X')) > 0)
                    return new int[] { index, column };
                index++;
            }
            return null;
        }
    
        @Override
        public String toString() {
            StringBuilder string = new StringBuilder();
            String newline = System.lineSeparator();
            for (char[] row : map)
                string.append(row).append(newline);
            return string.toString();
        }
    }
    
    11111
    1 X 1
    1 1 1
    1   1
    111 1
    
    [1, 2]